6/8/2012 - MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. -- The 42nd Medical Group is excited to begin patient registration for MiCare, the military's online confidential secure messaging service. This system has been shown to significantly increase patient satisfaction, reduce the number of phone calls between patients and providers, and save patients' and medical personnel's time.

The Air Force Medical Service aims to enroll as many patients as possible into MiCare and utilize secure messaging as the primary form of communication between patients and their healthcare teams.

Patients at various Air Force bases currently enrolled in MiCare are already talking about the ease, accessibility and benefits of this internet-based service. One MiCare enrollee said, "It is always empowering to be able to communicate via the internet about routine health issues - and can very well prevent visits to the clinic."

Another enrolled patient said, "MiCare answers many questions and saves so much time for both doctors and patients."

Patients will be able to request appointments, get test results, request prescription refills or ask their healthcare team medical questions via a secure electronic message, which bypasses phone trees, voicemail and phone tag. MiCare is set for secure messaging and will be adapted to include personal health records in the near future.

To register, patients should visit their healthcare team at the 42nd Medical Group to initiate the required face-to-face registration process.

Patients will need show their military identification card and provide basic information such as name, social security number, birthday and email address.

An email will be sent for patients to complete enrollment and confidential messages may begin immediately after enrollment.

MiCare has been designed to support patients and healthcare teams and will be implemented Air Force-wide. Once registered, a patient will remain in the system, no matter where the Air Force takes them.